Another Harris County deputy arrested

From Community Reports

Published 11:54 am, Friday, March 2, 2012

Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy Eleazar Gongora was arrested Friday afternoon, March 2, by sheriff’s office personnel, working with the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force, after being charged with continued sexual abuse of a child, a felony.

Gongora was being booked into the Harris County Jail after being arrested in east Harris County.

The victim is a girl who has been well known to Gongora. The investigation of the crimes was conducted by HCSO law enforcement officers.

“Regardless of whether the illegal behavior of a deputy takes place at work or outside of work, justice will catch up with him/her,” Sheriff Adrian Garcia said. “My employees are expected to obey the law in their private life as well as in their public life. We at the Sheriff’s Office see no boundary between them when it comes to protecting the community.”

Gongora, assigned to the Mental Health Unit in the jail, joined the HCSO in March 2000. His employment status is under review as a result of the charges against him.

In an unrelated case, another HCSO deputy was arrested this morning on charges of tampering with a government record. That case had also been handled from the start by the HCSO’s Internal Affairs Division Pro-Active unit.

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“My deputies are tasked with enforcing the law. That’s what I expect from them, that’s what the public expects from them,” Sheriff Garcia said about that case. “They are not above the law. Those who think they are have another thing coming because we will continue to police our own and clean house as necessary.”